A portfolio of free textures, 3d models, Jedi Knight levels, and other miscellaneous things.     "Cock Robin: His Life and Death By: Adam Sliger 12/01/1999 Something is drastically wrong in the small rural town of Saddleboro. Animals are dying, and behaving abnormally. Even the beloved Cock Robin that nested in mayor Joe's Stetson hat, and served as Saddleboro's clean air "mascot"! What went wrong? Shortly after Cock Robin's death, Tony Isidoro, the teen put on the case to discover the killer of Cock Robin, turned up some facts. Unfortunately enough, the Saddleboro mill run by the Lamberty family, dumps aniline dyes in the Missatonic River every two or three months. The dyes are dumped directly into the river, damaging, or even killing what life is contained within it. Another disturbing fact is this, Mayor Joe, yes, the Mayor of Saddleboro, uses fertilizer in his garden to help his plants to grow. The fertilizer, when washed away by rain, drains into the Saddleboro marsh, and too much fertilizer in the marsh is killing plants and animals, and is devastating to the delicate ecosystem. Thirdly, most farmers who dwell in this town clean equipment and such tems with detergents. These detergents contain chemicals, which can harm or kill helpless animals in Saddleboro. All of this is sad enough, but this is just the beginning. Tony also found that Mayor Joe puts a "natural powder", invented and made by him, on his lawn. The powder, while taking a great effect on the mayor's lawn, turning it a beautiful emerald green, also has an opposite effect on the marsh, into which it also drains. Next, the mill has manufactured a large supply of specialized fabric for NASA. This fabric was tested for NASA's purposes, whatever they may be, and failed the tests miserably. This was unfortunate, and NASA ordered the remaining supply of fabric to be burned. Mr. Lamberty, head of the mill, had taken the fabric to the town dump. The fabric burned slowly, since containing PCB another deadly chemical and the gas was seeping into the air ever so slowly. The Saddleboro power company sprays around power poles with a weed killer. This is done to keep the work area free of growth. 2, 4, 5 -T, killer of weeds, can also deform baby animals, if acquired by them during the birth process. Lastly, seeds in Florida have been treated with mercury. Birds migrate of course, and while passing over Florida, many birds were polluted with the mercury from these seeds, their source of food. Yes indeed, this is a very sad time in Saddleboro. Tony Isidoro has turned up several clues leading to the conclusion that something was wrong in Saddleboro, the clues are known as follows. Tony discovered Herring Gulls feeding at the marsh. Thinking this odd, he checked into it. The large white birds turned out to be attracted to the marsh by dead fish, which they were eating. The next clue was the billions of ants and bees located in the Saddleboro Park. What led to this? Tony knew. The majority of the spiders in Saddleboro had been contaminated with 2, 4, 5 -T. The weed killer had affected their offspring, producing spiders that lacked the ability and knowledge to mate. With few spiders to eat the ants, the ant population skyrocketed, sending the ecosystem into a downward spiral. The next piece of the puzzle was that the marsh hawk was eating anything and everything that it could stalk and capture. This includes mice, and poor sickly birds. Most likely, the majority of the hawk's new food supply was polluted. One of the unfortunate birds, who fell victim to the marsh hawk, was dear Mrs. Robin, wife of Cock Robin. Along with this, no frogs were left singing in the marsh, most likely due to Mayor Joe's chemicals. When Tony tested the Missatonic for foreign chemicals, he was abruptly and unpleasantly surprised. The river contained high, very high in fact, levels of both nitrogen and a strange chemical, found to be PCB. Next to this, the food for all the baby robins was polluted. There's more still. Hard metals were showing up in the air and drifting down, covering everything with a layer of contamination. When Mrs. Robin lay five eggs, most expected to see four or five babies to be born. WRONG! Only two eggs hatched. One chick died immediately, most likely due to 2, 4, 5 -T. The one surviving robin didn't have it easy either. He had a defect, caused by the weed killer. He was unable to call for food. This baby was named Saddle, obviously after Saddleboro. After Cock Robin's funeral, Tony sneaked him from his shoebox grave, to take him to the college. This is where he would have an autopsy performed, to find out just what exactly had in fact, killed the poor bird. After a complete investigation of the body, it was confirmed that the robin had a lot of chemicals in him, though only one was a large amount. Cock Robin's carcass contained a hefty dose of mercury. Where was it from? The final clue was the disappearance of the blue-green algae community in the marsh. There are many factors that lead to the death of a bird called Cock Robin. An odd dry wind was sweeping over the town. In this air, flowed DDT. The origin of this chemical was an expanse of apple orchards, some way away from Saddleboro. When the DDT settled, it covered most of the town. The cabbage loopers, absorbed the DDT from the grass, and when eaten by the baby robins, unknowingly passed the chemical on to their weak bodies. Now back to the special fabric for NASA. Mrs. Robin found it, in the dump, and as it was yellow, she made decoration from it for her nest. This is how the fabric, burnt by PCB, infected the Robin family. Now for the 2, 4, 5 -T. Who died from it, you ask. First of all, Mrs. Robin. She had acquired the chemical, and it made her weak, too weak to defend herself. Sadly, she was eaten by the Marsh Hawk. Secondly, Mrs. Robin's second chick was killed by it. The rest never hatched, also due to the weed killer. In this paragraph, I will sum up the several causes of Cock Robin's death. All of the chemicals in his body weakened him, but were not enough to kill him. With aide from Mary Alice and Rob, Tony found out what did claim the town mascot's life... Remember the seeds in Florida, well, the birds that ate them, of course passed away. The family of birds had parasitic flies living within their bodies. When their death occurred, the parasites moved on. The migrating Robins were the next targets for the killer bugs. One of these unlucky Robins was Saddleboro's own Cock Robin. Some parasitic flies attached themselves tothe bird, slowly eating him, dwindling his life away. The final factor of the death of the beloved bird, was the parasitic fly. Everyone in Saddleboro regretted their own mistakes, and are trying hard to clean up their act, literally.